The Long Way Home
by Princess Pinky
Summary: Undoing the curse to stop Pan's curse sends everyone back home, except for those who were unaffected by the curse to begin with. Alternate ending to "Going Home."


**A/N:** Spoilers. Spoilers right after I'm done typing this sentence. I am FURIOUS with the handling of Bae/Neal's death in the latest episode. He's too central to everyone's stories, he wasn't given hardly any screentime in the episodes leading up to his death, his "centric" wasn't even really a centric plus it was half shared with another underutilized character (Belle), they didn't even have the decency to allow Henry to remember his father, and the OUAT horror story Regina will probably get a happy ending after all the loathsome things she's done while Bae dies after a terribly awful life! So, this is a fix-it one-shot that begins at the end of "Going Home" so you'll unfortunately have to wade through some familiar stuff from the episode (it's not all rehash), but then you'll get into the good bits. ;)

_**The Long Way Home**_

"Breaking the curse," David said in slow realization, "destroys the town."

"It will wink out of existence as though it were never here and everyone will go back to where they're from…prevented from ever returning."

Woods, Aurora, Mulan, and a nursery of ruins flashed through Emma's mind. She thought of never seeing New York again. "We'll go back to the Enchanted Forest?"

"Everyone who was cursed," Regina said.

Snow began to shake her head. "But that means–"

David touched his wife's arm. "Emma."

"And Henry."

Emma turned at the sound of Neal's voice.

"If you remain here when the curse is undone, you'll be transported back to where you originated from the moment the curse was cast. But the three of you can cross the Storybrooke line and escape it. For the most part."

"Four," Hook said. "And what do you mean by 'for the most part'?"

"When Storybrooke disappears, all memories of Storybrooke will go with it. If you leave, you'll have gaps of amnesia. Anyone who's ever known about Storybrooke, even in passing, will cease to remember it." Regina motioned a leather gloved hand towards Henry. "Everyone who assisted in Henry's adoption won't remember me or that I was the 'mayor' of this town, Henry's adoption records will be purged from any records, written, electronic, or otherwise–"

"So either I go with him and lose my memories or I stay here and – and where does Henry end up? He hadn't even been born when the curse was cast!"

"He'd go back to Boston, where he was when I…when I 'adopted' him."

"A twelve-year-old all alone in Boston with no memory of who he is?" Emma curled her arm around Henry's shoulders, her head whipping from side to side. "They'd lock him and throw away the key. I can't – I won't!"

"_We_ won't." Neal stepped forward to stand sentry at his son's right side. "There has to be a way to fix this. What do we have to do?"

Regina rolled the scroll between her gloved fingers. "There's not. I have to pay the price or none of this will work. _But_ it can be subverted. For the three—" The corner of her eye spied Hook. "—four of you."

Thunder cracked and Belle shaded her face from her splaying hair.

"We don't have much time. Emma," Snow said, her voice strange, like the calm before the storm. "You have to go. Now."

"But I just found you."

"And now it's time to leave us again, for your best chance. For _his_."

"No. N-no! I'm not done! I'm the Savior! I'm supposed to bring back all the happy endings, that's what Henry always said!"

"Happy endings aren't always what we think they will be. Look around you: you've touched the lives of everyone here."

"But we're a family."

"Yes! And we always will be. _You_ gave us that."

David gripped Snow's hand. Despite her strong words he felt it shaking beneath his own and he knew it had nothing to do with the oncoming gale. "Henry can have the family you always wished for him. You can be like everyone else; you can be happy!"

"It's time for you to believe in yourself, Emma. It's time for you to find hope."

"I've known you for some time and all I wanted was for you to get the hell out of my life so I could be with my son. But now all I want is for Henry to be happy." Regina slid two fingers beneath Henry's chin and tilted his head back to fill her gaze with his eyes. "I was not a good mother–"

Henry shook his head, sliding his chin off Regina's fingers. "That's not true!"

"Yes, it _is_. I do love you, Henry, but I was a _terrible_ mother. I didn't exactly have the best role model, but that's no excuse. I was selfish: I consistently put my own needs before yours and I used you as my emotional crutch. I manipulated you and lied to you time and again. I never regretted anything because it always got me what I wanted in the end."

"So you regret what you've done now?" Henry whispered. "Because you're about to lose me?"

"No," Regina sniffed. "Every horrible thing I've done resulted in your birth and I don't think I could ever regret that, no matter how much I should." She lifted her head towards the small crowd, only a pinch of salt compared to the thousands of people she cursed. "But I am sorry." Her lip quivered as she looked to Belle. "I am so sorry for the pain I've inflicted."

"So you're asking for our forgiveness _now_?" Grumpy hissed.

"I'm not asking for anything. No one owes me anything, least of all forgiveness."

"Damn right we don't!"

Another foul gust billowed down Main Street. "You have to go!" She turned her back to Henry and began to walk down the middle of the street in the direction of the city line.

Emma tugged on Henry's hand, urging him to keep pace with Regina. "You said you could subvert it! How?"

"We don't have much time," Regina said. She stopped at the driver's side door of Emma's yellow Volkswagen Bug. "Take the car, I'll explain at the city line."

Emma grit her teeth as lightning blitzed across the sky. She motioned to Henry to get in the back with Neal and proceeded to drive down the road, feeling as though she was heading a funeral procession.

Neal silently reached to touch Emma's shoulder. He held her gaze briefly in the rearview mirror and she nodded, almost imperceptibly. Neal leaned back, not bothering to buckle himself, and draped his arm around his son's shoulders.

Henry buried his head into the crook of Neal's arm.

Ten minutes later Emma parked the Bug just before the city limit and got out, leaving the engine running. She watched as Henry moved to hug his grandparents and Neal hugged Belle, who seemed as though she was ready to fall apart like brittle pages of ancient parchment. She waited until the group was distracted. "Regina?"

Regina stepped around the Bug, her hands folded neatly across her midsection, still clutching the Dark Curse.

"Explain."

"I can do to you what I did to everyone else. To fill the void where your memories of Storybrooke used to be, I can give you new ones."

"But what you did was curse them and they were miserable."

"They didn't have to be. I can't make anything I've done right, but I can give Henry the childhood he should have had: I can give you _good_ memories. I won't choose them for you, as I did for many people in Storybrooke; they'll be organic."

"Organic?" Neal asked, coming up behind Regina.

"They'll adapt to the people you are and how those memories would have happened had you actually lived them."

"But what about the technicalities? If only our memories change, how do I explain Henry living with me if there's no paper trail? I will still have given him up for adoption in reality."

Regina opened her hand and a plume of royal purple smoke deposited a stack of papers. "Henry's birth certificate, medical history, school records...everything you'll need. Anything associated with the curse will disappear or acclimate." She set the papers into Emma's hand. "These documents will adapt to the new memories, you should have no trouble 'proving' them."

"What about Hook? How does he fit into this new life?"

"I–"

"Don't need to worry about that, Love. This is one voyage I won't be sailing."

"But–"

"You've got everything you need right there, Swan." Hook motioned to Neal, who was crouched down comforting Henry. "Bae and I have a past; you and Neal have a future. I backed out on him once…I guess I'm doomed to repeat myself." He nodded to the Bug. "That's quite the vessel you captain there."

"Are you sure?" Emma swiped at the corner of her eyes as Neal and Henry crowded around her.

Hook stepped back into the crowd. "Positive."

"We can't leave you here," Neal protested.

"I know what I'm doing and it's for the best."

"Killian–"

"I'm doing what I should have done all those years ago: the right thing. Don't make me regret it, son."

Neal forced himself to swallow and give a shallow nod.

"Anchors aweigh."

Regina stiffened. "Once you cross that town line you'll have the life you always wanted."

"But it won't be real."

"Your past won't, but your future will. Now _go_. There isn't much time left and the curse will be here any minute."

Emma crawled into the driver's seat as Henry said goodbye to Regina and Belle pressed a chaste kiss to Neal's cheek. She buckled as slowly as she could in an attempt to prolong her stay with her parents. When the belt finally clicked she looked up to find herself staring into a face as white as snow.

Snow White slipped her arms through the open window and hugged her daughter fiercely. "We love you!"

"I love you too."

Snow kissed Emma's forehead.

"And I won't forget it."

Snow used her gloved thumb to wipe the wetness from Emma's cheeks. As Neal and Henry returned to the car, she joined her husband beside the _Now leaving Storybrooke_ sign.

_Emma turned her wrist to look at her watch. 9:01 P.M. She flipped open her silver cell phone and hit her speed dial._

_The line beeped an error and a mechanical female voice informed her: "The. Number. You. Are. Trying. To. Reach. Is. Out. Of. Service. If. You. Think. You. Have. Reached. This. Message. In. Error–"_

"_Damn right it's an error." Emma moved her thumb to redial._

"_Unless he set you up!"_

_Emma paused and turned around. "And why would he do that?"_

"_Because he's a dirty thief."_

_Emma looped her arms around Neal's neck. "How dirty?"_

"_Filthy." Neal placed his hands on Emma's hips and walked her backwards into a mustard colored yellow wall. He reached into his pockets and pulled out fistfuls of cash. "Filthy rich!"_

"_And late."_

"_Sorry?"_

_Emma untangled her hand from behind Neal's head and pressed the face of the watch into Neal's. "Three minutes."_

"_Well maybe I can make up for that." Neal pulled the zipper on his coat down and pulled out a small white paper bag._

"_Doughnuts?"_

"_Bagels, sorry, they were out of doughnuts."_

"_Hand 'em over, I'm starving." Emma pulled the lips of the bag apart and moved to reach her hand inside, but suddenly a powerful cinnamon aroma struck her nose and she recoiled, dropping the bag._

"_What was that?" Neal asked while bending down to retrieve the bag. "You don't like cinnamon raisin?"_

_Emma rubbed her stomach. "No, uh, it's not that, it's…I don't know."_

"_Em?"_

_Emma shook her head. "I just feel a little nauseous all of the sudden."_

"_You okay?"_

"_I think it's just the excitement, my stomach's been in knots all day."_

"_But now we're home free."_

"_No," Emma grinned. "Not 'home free,' we're free to go home."_

_Neal looped his arm around Emma's waist and threaded his hand through hers, tapping the face of her stolen watch with his thumb. He grinned and planted a kiss on her cherry lips. "Time to go home."_

Two days later Emma's swan keychain was dangling from the ignition. She peered into her rearview mirror to see her boys roughhousing in the backseat and, satisfied that their seatbelts were still on, she flicked her eyes back to the open road ahead of her and turned on the radio. The opening instrumental of "Charley's Girl" began to thrum from speakers.

Neal abandoned his quest to pin his son down and instead leaned forward to poke his head over the front seat. "Hey, turn it up!" He looked excitedly at Henry. "That–"

"Your and Mom's song," Henry said, wrinkling up his nose. "I know!" He rolled his eyes as his dad unbuckled himself and climbed into the front passenger seat in order to kiss his mother.

"Neal!" Emma squealed. "I'm trying to drive here, you're going to get us pulled over!"

Henry suddenly unbuckled himself as well.

"Henry!" Emma shouted.

Henry leaned forward, pressing his head into the space between his parents' and pointed ecstatically. "Look, we're finally here!"

Emma and Neal looked at each other and then turned their heads just in time to see their Bug passing a sign that read: _Welcome to Tallahassee!_


End file.
